MOBILE, Ala. -- Mobile and its police jurisdiction saw fewer homicides, robberies and property crimes during the first 6 months of this year, mirroring a national trend, according to preliminary statistics released by the FBI on Monday.

(Press-Register/Victor Calhoun)Interim Mobile police chief Lester Hargrove: "We are second-to-none with catching those guys when they go out and do these things."

The overall number of violent crimes fell from 598 during the first six months of 2008 to 544 in the first six months of this year. The 9 percent decrease was more than twice the national average.

Homicides dropped from 26 to 17 in Mobile, and 10 percent across the nation. Robberies declined from 419 to 370, and 6.5 percent nationally.

Property crimes overall dropped slightly, from 7,045 to 6,995, while decreasing by 6.1 percent across the country. Vehicle thefts in Mobile dropped by 25 percent.

Other categories of crime were flat or rose slightly during the six-month period. Burglaries and aggravated assault, for example, increased.

"We are second-to-none with catching those guys when they go out and do these things," he said.

But Hargrove was reluctant to take credit for the drop in homicides, which he said fluctuate dramatically and are the hardest type of crime for police to control. The recent decline, he said, is the result of people "maybe thinking before pulling the trigger or pulling a knife."

The FBI's figures are based on data the agency collected from more than 11,700 police and law enforcement agencies. Crime rates in the United States have not been this low since the 1960s and are nowhere near the peak reached in the early 1990s.

The early 2009 data suggests the crime-dropping trend of 2008 is not just continuing but accelerating. In 2008, the same data showed a nearly 4 percent drop in homicides and an overall drop in violent crime of 1.9 percent from 2007 to 2008.

"We clearly have a trend down in violent crime in the United States," said Robert Sigler, a retired University of Alabama criminal justice professor.

Theories have abounded as to why crime has continued a steady march downward, but Sigler acknowledged, "We really have no idea whatsoever."

Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine, who tangled with Mobile Mayor Sam Jones over the summer about the accuracy of the police department's crime data, praised the efforts of Mobile police and said officers deserve to be paid more money. But, he said, he still has questions about how crime statistics are gathered.

And, he said, the crime numbers continually bump up against newspaper headlines reporting brazen crimes. It's consistently the first concern that people raise at community meetings, he said.

"It's hard for me to go around and say, 'Well, statistically, crime is down,'" he said.